The iconic Ghost Face returns once again for the seventh film in the Scream franchise. Photo: Paramount Pictures.
When moviegoers hear the word ‘horror’, they tend to think of characters like Freddie Krueger, Jason Voorhees, or Michael Myers.
Each of those characters is in the upper echelon of horror icons, but another has been slowly and surely crawling its way up the list: Ghost Face.
With the release of Scream 7, 30 years after the original, Ghost Face is once again thrust to the forefront of pop culture with a kitchen knife in one hand and a phone in the other.
While the previous six films in the horror/satire franchise have done relatively well providing scares while poking fun at the genre, the newest film comes up short.
Scream 7 once again follows scream queen Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell), who’s moved away from her hometown of Woodsborough to a town in California with her husband, Mark (Joel McHale) and daughter, Tatum (Isabella May).
In all Screams, a mysterious killer calls Sidney using a voice changer, threatening to kill both her and her family.
Instead, this time, instead of remaining anonymous, the killer reveals themselves to be someone from her past.
From a premise perspective, this film is most similar to Scream 4. Its main suspects are all teenagers who have some connection to Sidney or Tatum.
Unlike the cast of Scream 4, the cast of Scream 7 is nowhere near as charismatic. Say what you will about that film, but the introduction of Hayden Panettiere as Kirby and Emma Roberts as Jill gave that film a sense of identity that stood out from the iterations before it.
Unfortunately, the young cast here, aside from Tatum, are just so cookie-cutter that no one stands out. This is extremely disappointing as Scream is known for its roster of characters; instead, it’s hard to distinguish this from any other teenage slasher.
One positive is the kills themselves. Some of them are absolutely gnarly! One, in particular, towards the beginning of the film, stands out as one of the best since the franchise was resurrected in 2022.
The use of Courtney Cox’s Gale Weathers was also pretty solid throughout. Instead of being a reporter on the front lines, she’s still dealing with her own personal and physical wounds from the previous two movies and provides a solid emotional plot thread.
As these films rely on reveals, I won’t go into spoilers as to who the killer is. Part of the magic of these movies is experiencing the bloody kills firsthand and trying to work out who is behind it all.
Unfortunately, the reveal is the weakest of the seven films. Scream 7 relied heavily on nostalgia bait from a previous killer, setting it up for failure.
If it had gone through with bringing the person in question back, it would have felt like a gag that diminished the ending of the earlier movie they are from.
Whereas if it turned out not to be them, the audience would have been cheaply misled by ideas from previous films, masking the poor writing of this one.
While I won’t tell you which it is, neither would have been great.
Ultimately, Scream 7 is a bit of a step down for this franchise. While there is no bad movie among them, some are more disappointing than others, and the newest is the least satisfying of the series.
Scream 7 is currently showing in cinemas across the country.
Original Article published by Jarryd Rowley on Region Canberra.
